Moab Adventure – Day 1

This is a recap of day one from our adventure this last weekend in Moab, Utah.

We packed up the camper Thursday night and left before dawn on Friday morning, since we knew it would take us around six hours to get there. We luckily did not hit any traffic through the mountains. For breakfast, Stacy had made some quick and delicious blueberry muffins she found from this Crazy Vegan Kitchen.

This was our first real time we towed the camper more than 10 miles. We tried to keep the weight down by not overpacking or filling the water tank prior. The Jeep struggled a little bit going over some of those large mountain passes, but overall did really well. It took approximately 1.5 tanks of gas, which we did not think was too bad.

We decided to stay at a campground on this trip and do a little recon on places like BLM land to stay at for our next trip. Since it was last minute, the campgrounds were actually pretty full. We were able to find a spot at Moab Valley RV Resort & Campground (review post to come soon), which is just down the street from Arches and prior to hitting the Main Street of Moab.

After arriving at the campground, we were able to check-in a little early and set up our camper. We decided to eat a little lunch prior to setting off for the Arches. Stacy tried to make as many meals as possible at home so that we could get in as much adventure as possible.

From the cookbook called Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!, we had the French Tofu Salad with Grapes. We served them on pita bread since we had limited selections on baguettes at the grocery store. We also wanted something we did not have to cook since we figured we would be at the park most of the day. The sandwiches were very tasty and are similar to a chicken-salad type of sandwich.

After lunch, we headed out to sightsee. The weather on Friday was beautiful, with temps around high 70’s, so we were able to take the front part of our roof off the Jeep. We loaded up the pups, some snacks/drinks, and started at the Arches National Park. It was National Park Week last week, so admission was free. That also meant there were a lot of people there.

Since we had the dogs with us, we were not able to go hike on any of the trails or leave the dogs in the car because of the heat. We drove around to see everything we could from our vehicle, as well as hit up a couple of Jeep trails in the backcountry.

Photo from Amazon

We love to go Jeeping as we get to see things that people do not typically get to see from the main road. We purchased a book from a local outdoors store called Guide to Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails by Funtreks. We like that the book shows the difficulty of the trails, as well as the time it will take you for each one, photos, the location of the trailheads, and landmarks/cool things for you to look at. It was also nice that this book was spiraled to keep it open easier while we were driving.

After Arches, we followed the highway along the Colorado River to check out the BLM camp areas. These are smaller campground type places without electricity. They are usually around $15, have an outhouse, and are on a first come/first basis for spots. The river itself is very beautiful. There are various companies from town that drop off people to paddle board, kayak, etc. down the river. There is also a newer bike path that follows the river for about 3 miles and then also winds up to the entrance to Arches.

We headed back to the campsite to eat dinner. Stacy had pre-prepared some cashew quinoa burgers from the Native Foods blog that we could put on the grill. She tried out the burger press we purchased here, and it worked out great to form the patties and store them in the fridge until we grilled them. We added some Daiya Pepper Jack cheese on top, as well as chipolte Just Mayo and veggies. They were super delicious and we would definitely make these again.

Due to the fact that the campground is right next to a nature preserve, fire pits and campfires are not allowed. We took the dogs for a walk and sat around reading the Jeep book to plan out tomorrow’s adventures.

Here is a slideshow of more of our photos from Arches National Park.

Day 2 will be posted next, so stay tuned for more adventures!!

**Some of the links in this post will take you to directly to Amazon for easier shopping. These links are through the Amazon Affiliate Program.

I have a 2017 Rubicon 4 door, same color as yours. I’ve been looking at getting this exact trailer. We live in Utah and frequent Moab. Was wondering how well the jeep pulls this trailer. On long climbs can you maintain speed? Does it downshift to 2nd or 3rd gear frequently? Does your transmission get hot? Any additional mods like brake controller, sway bar, trans cooler? On paper, it looks like it can do it, but just wondering about real world. Thanks!!

Hi Scott. We love the trailer and picked it out specifically for the size since the Jeep cannot tow a lot, though we probably have maxed it out on weight once we add all our stuff.

On a flat road, you can use normal Drive mode and can maintain 60-65 mph with no problems. All uphill travels, we use manual Drive mode and shift between 3rd and 4th gear. With the big mountain passes, we average about 35-40 mph.

As long as you keep the Jeep under 4,000 rpm’s, you should not have any overheating issues with the transmission.

When we purchased the RV, we had them install a brake controller and a simple friction brake sway bar (which may be a little overkill, but we still use it each time).

We also highly recommend installing a rear set air bag system on your Jeep. We have the Airlift brand which you install inside your springs and are under $100 for the set. Prior to hooking the trailer to the Jeep, we inflate the airbags, which helps keep the bottom of the Jeep from sagging with the weight of the trailer on it.

Let us know if you have any questions or need photos/links of any of the add-ones we have on our Jeep! Good luck with your new Jeep and trailer buying!